The Spanish Second Civil War
BY THE MOMENT THIS ARTICLE IS ONLY A GUIDE. FEEL FREE TO DISCUSS BUT PLEASE, DONT EDIT THE ARTICLE EXCEPT FOR GRAMMAR PURPOSES. THANKS.--BIPU 00:02, April 25, 2011 (UTC) On 11 March 2004 a series of bombs exploded in commuter trains in Madrid, Spain. The bombings killed 191 people and wounded more than 1800, and the intention of the perpetrators has been to influence the outcome of the Spanish general election, held three days later. Though initial suspicions focused on the Basque group ETA, evidence soon emerged indicating possible Islamist involvement. Because of the proximity of the election, the issue of responsibility quickly became a political controversy, with the main competing parties PP and PSOE exchanging accusations over the handling of the aftermath. Subsequent media investigations have shown that some elements of police, disobeying and breaking the chain of command previously reported to the leaders of the PSOE than to their superiors and the government. The PSOE used that information to directly blame PP for the attacks because of its position as U.S. ally in the Iraqi war. At 14 March elections, PSOE, led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, obtained a plurality, enough to form a new cabinet with Rodríguez Zapatero as the new Presidente del Gobierno or Prime Minister of Spain, thus succeeding the former PP administration. Spain 2004-2008: The return to the 30s Since coming to power, President Rodríguez Zapatero was self-proclaimed heir to the Second Republic, removing any legitimacy not only to the years of Franco's dictatorship but also the democratic transition that he considered the heir of Franco. Buried in its struggle to return to Spain in the decade of the 30s, the early years of his rule were marked by constant attacks on the Monarchy, the Catholic religion and the military. The attacks on the Catholic religion began with the withdrawal of any Catholic symbol of public life and ended up forcing the removal of all crosses from any public building, removing religion from schools, prohibiting the existence of Catholic schools, eliminating any kind of agreement with the Holy See and confiscating properties of the Catholic Church. The attacks against the Catholic religion were much more severe in the days before the 2008 elections, when two nuns died after being brutally raped by a group of anti-Catholic protesters with the passivity of the police. The president began to take roles that the constitution gave the Head of State and gradually the figure of the king was being removed from political life and contributions to the royal family were drastically reduced. Meanwhile in the army most of the generals were passed to the reserve and its place occupied by members of the Socialist Party or military related. The military academies were closed and the defense budget cut in half. Meanwhile, his government began a political negotiation with ETA terrorists, wich were allowed to stand for regional elections (despite the protests of the victims of terrorism and opposition parties) where they obtained representation. In this period marked by the ideological extremism of the president and his government, the international prestige of Spain fell sharply. Foreign policy actions were limited to promoting relations with totalitarian regimes, especially the Muslims. The fact that finally damaged the relations of Spain with other European nations and forced them to close the borders was the massive legalization of millions of illegal immigrants mostly from Africa and South America. This was considered by the opposition as an attempt to artificially change the country's cultural traditions and varying statistics on religious affiliation. The immediate result of the massive regularization was an exponential increase in crime and civil unrest. The economic situation got worse during this period due to lack of government interest in economic affairs and especially by the huge government spending to finance its policies that led the country to the verge of bankruptcy. April 2007: Euskadi proclaims its independence As the situation in Spain was deteriorating, in the Basque Country the sense of independence was growing. Not only focused on the radical ideology of ETA, but also between moderate people who thought that independence would serve to restore their economic and social status. In addition, the EAJ-PNV (Basque Nationalist Party and the majority political force in the Basque Country) was a party with deep Catholic roots that showed increasing dissatisfaction with the drift of the government of Spain. On February 19, 2007, regional elections were held in the Basque Country. The election was won with absolute majority by the EAJ-PNV (Basque Nationalist Party). A month later, Ignacio Unanue Laburu was elected Lehendakari (Chief Minister) and the day after his election he signed a decree declaring unilaterally the independence of Basque Country. Surprisingly in a few hours, 20000 soldiers from Eusko Gudarostea (Basque Army) fully armed and equipped took control of the Basque Country and set up border controls with Spain and France. French departments of "Pyrénées-Atlantiques" and "Landes" joined the new nation within weeks with the approval of French government. The day after the declaration of independence, Euskadi was recognized and publicly supported by the Baltic Union (months later it was known that Baltic Union was who armed and equipped the Eusko Gudarostea soldiers) and in the next days the new nation was recognized by other European and worldwide nations as a sign of the low prestige that Spain and the Spanish Government had in the world. Meanwhile in Spain the Rodríguez Zapatero government, prisoner of its radical ideology, renounced to any attempt to use force against Euskadi and proposed a political solution. Although Euskadi was never officially recognized by Spain, during the following months that Spain existed as a nation, the government did not take any direct action to abort the independence. Year 2008 and the May general election The year 2008 began with a country deeply divided between supporters and opponents of President Rodriguez Zapatero. On one side were the far left holding the president, the millions of immigrants legalized, the the increasingly influential Muslim parties and a lot of "anti" and paramilitary groups organized and financed by the government. On the other side were the center-right parties, members of the PSOE unhappy with Rodriguez Zapatero's policies and a large part of civil society. In a final attempt to secure re-election at any price to continue with his radical policies the government granted citizenship to all immigrants legalized in previous years, allowing them to vote in the May elections. Meanwhile the army remained resigned and subject to strict political control of government. However, discontent was growing especially evident among young officers. In April, a month before the election, the president Rodríguez Zapatero announced that he will abolish the monarchy if it is reelected. The King, sick and unable to react went into exile with his family in London. The days before the election turned the streets of big cities especially Madrid, Valencia and Seville on a battlefield when extreme left-wing armed groups supported by Muslim parties attacked and burned several churches, including cathedrals of Madrid and Seville in response by the fire of a mosque in Madrid. Government is accused of electoral fraud The situation of tension and chaos did not improved the day of elections and opposition parties claimed hundreds of polling irregularities. Missing ballots, postal votes of deceased persons, votes of not registered persons, etc. Published election results left no doubt that there had been massive fraud, the coalition of extreme left wing parties led by President Rodriguez Zapatero won the majority while the opposition center-right was in third place behind the coalition of Muslim parties. Opposition parties accused the government of electoral fraud and fights in the streets plunged Madrid and other areas of southern Spain into chaos. Hundreds of thousands of people left Madrid and went to towns and cities in northern Spain. On 13 June government ordered the army to act and restore the order, but a majority of officers refused to obey causing a split in the army. The July military uprising and the invasion from Morocco On 1 July a group of army officers rebelled against the government of Rodriguez Zapatero. The rebellion was followed mostly in the northern cities of Spain while in the south heavy fighting occurred between the rebels against armed Muslim militias that "de facto" controlled the south of Spain with the complicity of the government. Two weeks later and forced by his own party, Rodriguez Zapatero was forced to resign and go into exile. Vice President Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba took power in an attempt to remedy the situation but it was too late because the August 2, 2008 Morocco officially invaded Spain under the pretext of defending Muslim militias. On 13 August the government of Spain was officially dissolved and the people abandoned to their fate by the rest of the government members. The war against Morocco In the early days of the invasion, Moroccan troops occupied southern Spain with little resistance. Andalucía, Murcia and the provinces of Ciudad Real and Albacete was occupied in a few weeks. S2CW 01 02-08-2008.jpg|The Iberian Peninsula on August 2, 2008. S2CW 02 20-08-2008.jpg|The Iberian Peninsula on August, 20th 2008. S2CW 03 01-10-2008.jpg|The Iberian Peninsula on October, 1st 2008. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Muslim militants, armed secretly by Morocco in the previous months, took control of Madrid forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee to the northern provinces. The Spanish army was reorganized in the north with the soldiers and equipment that have been moved to the north in the days before the invasion. The city of León was elected as the new headquarters and General Pérez Brea (a former director of the Military Academy) was named Chief of The Army. The first serious resistance to the Moroccan troops was found around the city of Valencia. There, about 5000 Spanish soldiers offered fierce resistance to a Moroccan army that tripled them in number. Despite the attempts of spanish aviation from the north to break the siege, the Moroccan troops were at the doors of Valencia in early October 2008. At that time, almost all of the Spanish Navy had been transferred to the north and was operational. In a suicidal action, the aircraft carrier "Príncipe de Asturias" and its battle group passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and managed to reach the coast of Valencia to deliver supplies to troops and civilians. During the following days, they fought tirelessly to navy and air units from Morocco allowing the evacuation by sea of hundreds of thousands of civilians from the city of Valencia who were transferred to France. At dawn on October 12, 2008 the city of Valencia fell into the hands of Moroccan troops and the aircraft carrier "Príncipe de Asturias" was sunk by its captain in waters of the port of Valencia. With almost the entire southern part of Spain occupied by Moroccan troops in just three months it seemed that the total control of the peninsula was inevitable when the October 17th, King of Morocco entered triumphantly in the Cordoba Mosque to be crowned Grand Caliph of Al Andalus. That day the Moroccan troops entered southern Portugal. Catalonia declares its independence and is integrated in FGC Once Valencia had fallen, was a matter of days or weeks that the Moroccan troops reached Catalonia. With the spanish nation completely dismantled, the president of the Catalan autonomous government, Artur Mas, formally declared the independence of Catalonia and requested its inclusion in the Franco-German Commonwealth together with the Balearic Islands on November 1st . The request was accepted and Commonwealth troops were moved to Catalonia to ensure their safety. The new government of Al Andalus said they had no intention of attacking Catalonia. The resistance is organized in the north: The new Kingdom of León Despite attempts to organize a counteroffensive in the north by General Pérez Brea, the lack of a clear political objective jeopardized the resistance. On November 3, 2008, Prince Felipe of Borbón, son of the exiled spanish king reaches León to serve under the command of General Perez Brea who had been his teacher at the Military Academy, but the General persuaded Felipe to be the one who leads the people in their struggle against the invader. Supported by the military and the vast majority of people, Prince Felipe of Borbón is sworn in as King of Leon on November 7, 2008 in the Holy Cathedral of Leon. He became Felipe I, King of León. All the remaining spanish territories were integrated in the Kingdom of León as heir of the spanish nation. The development of the war S2CW 04 10-11-2008.jpg|The Iberian Peninsula on November, 10th 2008. S2CW 05 24-12-2008.jpg|The Iberian Peninsula on Christmas 2008. While the Moroccan army occupied the southern half of the peninsula, troops of General Pérez Brea were reorganized in the north from its headquarters in the city of Leon. Since his appointment, General Pérez Brea was faced with the dilemma of attacking with existing media or wait and organize a strong defense in the north. Despite the wishes of some officers and politicians that wanted to attack with the existing media, he decided to sacrify some regions such as Aragon to keep the front line as short as possible in order to an easier defence. In Portugal, troops of Al Andalus met strong resistance on the outskirts of Lisbon, which was surrounded and subjected to a fierce siege becoming a symbol of resistance. However, the armies of Al Andalus continued their advance towards the north of Portugal isolating the region of Lisbon from the rest of the country. In view of the events, Portugal's government decides its integration into the Kingdom of Leon as the only alternative. Since that time, although surrounded, Lisbon was supported by sea from the north. At first time, it seemed that General Perez Brea strategy was working and the advance of troops from Al Andalus was slowed, but due to Al Andalus military meas were higher than those of the Kingdom of León, in Christmas 2008 the kingdom had lost the provinces of La Rioja, Burgos and Soria on the eastern front and Salamanca, Avila, Santarem, Portalegre, Castelo Branco, Leiria, Coimbra and Guarda on the Western Front. The Kingdom of León gets international support Since the conflict began, there was a stream in Euskadi requesting support in the fight against the invaders, however the government was reluctant to make the move. In the first weeks of December 2008 there were official contacts between representatives of the Kingdom of León and Euskadi. Mutual recognition was negotiated and it was laid the foundation for Euskadi intervention in the war against Al Andalus. On Christmas day 2008, in Laredo (Santander province), the King met with Ignacio Unanue Laburu, Lehendakari of Euskadi. Both nations recognized each other as sovereign nations and Euskadi's rights over the provinces of La Rioja, Cantabria and Burgos were recognized too. The next day, Eusko Gudarostea entered the conflict by attacking the troops of Al Andalus in the eastern front. Twenty days later the provinces of Burgos and La Rioja was reconquered in the eastern front by the Eusko Gudarostea. La Rioja and the north part of Burgos were incorporated to Euskadi. After being supported by troops from Euskadi who helped the recapture of positions on the eastern front, the army of General Pérez Brea launched an offensive on the western front regaining the provinces of Salamanca and Bragança in the first days of January 2009. Troops from Kingdom of León marched toward Lisbon. For the first time in the war, the Kingdom of León took the initiative. In early February 2009, the FGC decided to enter the conflict claimming for Catalonia the aragonese provinces controlled by Al Andalus. This intervention, although supposed to renounce the aragonese provinces allowed the Kingdom of León concentrate its war efforts in the western front. At the same time Baltic Union decided to support Euskadi as an ally nation and announced the sent of two brigades to the area as well as naval and air support. This support allowed the basques to gain the provinces of Huesca and the north of Zaragoza. Reconquering S2CW 06 10-01-2009.jpg|The Iberian Peninsula on January, 6th 2009. S2CW 07 10-03-2009.jpg|The Iberian Peninsula on March, 10th 2009. S2CW 08 10-05-2009.jpg|The Iberian Peninsula on May, 10th 2009. S2CW 09 01-08-2009.jpg|The Iberian Peninsula on August, 1st 2009. On the eastern front troops from Euskadi and Baltic Union fought over the months of January and February 2009 to consolidate La Rioja and Burgos and recovering the province of Soria. With the entry of troops from FGC in February across the Pyrenees, the resistance of Al Andalus in the eastern front collapsed and by early May 2009 had also lost the provinces of Huesca, Zaragoza and Guadalajara. Meanwhile at the front of the Western General Perez Brea assumed again a controversial decision by deciding not to attack Madrid and concentrating all his forces to move south to Lisbon, regaining Salamanca and Ávila in the way. This decision caught off guard the armies of Al Andalus which was entrenched in Madrid and is unable to stop the advance of troops from the Kingdom of León to the south. Lisbon is liberated on 9 March 2009. In early May 2009 on the western front the Kingdom of León had recovered the provinces of Salamanca, Ávila, Cáceres, Aveiro, Viseu, Garda, Coimbra, Castelo Branco, Leiria, Santarem and Porto Alegre. The march over Madrid Throughout the months of May and June fighting focused in the provinces of Cuenca and Toledo on the east by the west with the intention of surrounding Madrid. The coalition troops know that Al Andalus expected to send a reserve army from North Africa. The only way to prevent conflict will go on forever is to capture Madrid and force a settlement before the reserve troops are able to land on the peninsula. Al Andalus troops know it too and in the month of June the fiercest fighting of the war took place around Toledo. Despite fierce resistance from the troops of Al Andalus, Toledo and Cuenca were recovered in early July 2009 and Madrid was surrounded by coalition troops. While the armies of the Kingdom of León, Euskadi and Baltic Union tighten the noose around Madrid, FGC troops conquered the provinces of Teruel and Castellon in the east and the soldiers who had been released from the siege of Lisbon recovered the provinces of Evora and Setubal in the west. The Roma Agreement and the end of the war In mid-July 2009 battles were fought on the outskirts of Madrid. The Coalition Fleet fought hard in the Strait of Gibraltar to prevent the arrival of reinforcements from North Africa and avoided the massive movement of soldiers, but Al Andalus still managed to move to the mainland to 14000 soldiers and hundreds of armored vehicles. These reinforcements returning to balance the forces on the peninsula. The conflict seemed to stagnate and both Baltic Union and Franco-German Commonwealth had no intention of sending more reinforcements so that they urged the international community to mediate in the conflict. The United Nations intervened by appointing a mediator to negotiate a truce between the parties. The Kingdom of León was aware of the difficulties that would have to submit the south of the peninsula due to the strong Muslim roots in the area, but felt Madrid as a non-negotiable objective. On the other hand Al Andalus was content to maintain control of the southern half of the peninsula and established their new capital in Cordoba. Finally, on August 25, 2009 agreement was signed in Rome keeping borders on that date except for Madrid, which would be abandoned by the troops of Al Andalus and Muslim militias before the end of July. Category:Pages undergoing construction Category:FW Storage